Steam bell-ringer



UNITED STATES PATENT GEORGE B. SNOWV, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

STEAM IBELL-RINGER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 871,636, dated October 18, 1887.

(No model.)

em for Locomotive and other Bells, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to that class of steam bell-ringers in which the bell, which is suspended in a bell-yoke oscillating on bearings, is swung by the thrust of the piston of a single-acting engine. Its object is to simplify the construction of the motor and to furnish one equally efficient, more cheaply made, more durable, and more easily and cheaply repaired than those heretofore used.

It consists in providing a cylinder which will accommodate a piston of equal throw with the crank upon the bell-yoke, with which it is connected, the parts being so arranged that the steam-inlet shall be closed and the exhaustpassage opened early in the stroke.

It also consists in making a direct connection between the crank upon the bell-yoke and the piston by means of a pitman and dispensing with the fixed cylinder-head and pistonrod usually employed, securing, as a result,

greater simplicity, increased stability and durability, and larger wearing-surfaces.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a central longitudinal section of a single-acting steam-cylinder embodying one form of my invention. Fig. 2is a similar section of another cylinder, showing also the manner of connection to the crank of the bellyoke.

In both figures similar letters refer to simi belowthe piston as it reaches the lower end of its stroke.

S is the inlet for steam; E, the exhaust-outlet; ee, relief-passages communicating with the exhaust-passage E; H, the pitman connecting the piston with the crank upon the bell-yoke.

In Fig. 1 the piston B has a piston-rod, D, which is jointed to the pitman Hat d, and the cylinder is surmounted by the fixed cylinderhead 0. The upper end of the pitman H is designed to be connected to a crank upon the bell-yoke of a swinging bell in the manner shown in Fig. 2. ,The parts are so proportioned that the piston will force open the Valve V at one end of its stroke, and will not come in contact with the cylinder-head O at the other end of its stroke, even though the bell should be turned completely over and the crank to which the pitman H is attached should make a complete revolution.

The exhaust-port E opens into the cylinder at a short distance from its bottom, at a point where it will be opened by the passage of the piston B as it completes about one-fourth of its upward stroke, or at the time when the bell shall have swung about far enough to receive the stroke of its clapper.

In Fig. 2 the cylinder is open-mouthed, no obstruction being presented to the upward and outward passage of the piston or plunger B. To exclude dust and cinders it is loosely covcred by a plate, 0, which'is perforated to allow the free passage of the pitman H, and which slides freely upon the top of the cylinder A, following the lateral movements of the pitman H. The lower end of the rounded pitman H is received in a conical depression in the top of the piston B, corresponding with it in shape at the bottom, and is loosely jointed thereto by a pin, 1), so that the bearing or thrust of the piston will come upon the bottom of the depression therein and the end of the rod H, and not upon the pin 1). The upper end of the rod has a round eye, through which the crank-pin f passes. The crank-pin f is fastened in the crank F, which is secured to the end of the bell-yoke K, which rotates on bearings in the usual manner, and to which the bell L is suspended.

The ordinary method of connecting the piston and rodmay be employed; but the .one above detailed will be found preferable. It is evident that it may be used with either an extensible connection or one of fixed length.

The operation of either form of cylinder shown is similar. The bell being set inmotion and steam turned on, the piston is forced to the bottom of the cylinder as the crank passes center, and the valve V is opened by the piston. Steam being thus admitted under the piston B, it will be driven upward, communicating motion to the bell. .Asthe piston passes the exhaustopeninglflthe steam will escape and the valve V be closed by the rush of steam past it. The bell continuing its motion, the piston B will rise a greater or less] dis tance, and, descending with the bell,w ill again open the valve V, when steam will again en ter and the piston be again driven upward.

;I claim as my invention- 1. In a steam bell-ringer, a single-acting cyl inder with a piston, a steam-admission valve, and an exhaust-port situated in the cylinder at a distance from its bottom about one-fourth the length of stroke of the piston, and opened, by the passage of the piston over it, snbstan tially as described.

2. In a steam bell-ringer, a single-acting passage through 'it,'in conibinatio' ithf'an a swinging bell, a steam-admission valve, and an exhaust-port, the whole being arranged to out off and release the steam from the cylinder vvhen about onefourth, the stroke of the pis= the whole being arranged to cutoff and 'release the steam from the cylinder at about the time when the bell; receivesthe'stroke of its clapper, substantiallyas described.

4. Ina steam bell-ringer, afpistdnl viii; fIa

exhaust or relief passage'inthecy nder ranged to be open at the b'eginningfif {the stroke and to close by the m vement bfthe piston, substantially as described.

GEORGE B. Witnesses:

NVILLIAM GRAM, Jr.,

0. V. HALL.

'lerig -th connected to a cranku'pon the yoke of 30 .Iect-ly connected to a crank upon, theoyoke of 4Q swinging bellbymeans of a connecting-rod, 

